Country Living With Access To Cities

Village Center, Small Population Make For Neighborhood Feeling

Checking Out: Deep River

When Colleen Bonker moved into her home in Deep River, she says, she felt as if she were back in the small upstate New York town she grew up in.

``I've always liked Deep River,'' said Bonker, who in December bought a small cape-style home in the town's center about a half-mile from the Connecticut River.

Bonker enjoys walking down Main Street at twilight and waving to her neighbors, just as she did growing up in upstate New York. Deep River's neighborhood feeling was a big selling point for her, she said.

Office manager since 1991 for Earth Products, a Deep River sand and stone company, Bonker, 45, had been looking at houses for about a year. Then she walked into an 1835 schoolhouse. It was the opposite of the big properties she had been looking at. But the small, beige-colored house was exactly what she wanted, she said. She bought it for $130,000.

``I just saw it, and that's all it took,'' Bonker said.

A split-rail fence surrounds two sides of the house. Gardens are planted with a variety of wildflowers. The former owners, who sold the house after they moved to Japan, built an enclosed Zen garden and extensively renovated the home's interior, exposing wooden floors and beams.

The house is a short walk from the town dock on the Connecticut River, the Essex Steam Train, and Deep River's village center, which has a little bit of everything, Bonker said.

There's a pizza place, a Chinese restaurant and an antiques store. The village is also home to a company that makes pasta and a pub where there's jazz music every Thursday night.

The town has about 4,400 residents. Everybody keeps an eye out for everybody else, First Selectman Richard H. Smith said.

Deep River's resident state trooper, Ben Liberatore, agrees.

``It's a very close town,'' Liberatore said.

Deep River's crime is limited to occasional acts of vandalism and minor thefts, Liberatore said. State police from the Westbrook barracks patrol the town 24 hours a day. Liberatore supervises four regular and four special constables locally.

``When I'm not here, the constables are working,'' he said.

Another strong point for the town is a tax rate that has remained virtually unchanged for the past five years. Deep River taxes property at a rate of $22.40 for every $1,000 of assessed value. The next property revaluation is scheduled for 2002.

Deep River has a volunteer fire department and a garbage transfer station. Many homes in the town center are connected to sewer lines for which they each pay a $330 annual fee.

Students attend the Deep River Elementary School, John Winthrop Junior High School and Valley Regional High School. Deep River, Chester and Essex are partners in Regional School District 4.

Deep River is bounded by Chester, Killingworth, Westbrook and Essex. About one-third of the town is state forest. Major thoroughfares in town are routes 9, 154, 145 and 80. Deep River is about 10 minutes from I-95.

Proximity to Hartford, New Haven, New London and New York can offer Deep River residents the advantage of country living on a city income, said Don Milton, a real estate broker and founder of the Milton Realty Co. in Deep River.

Milton, 70, moved to Deep River from Nantucket 40 years ago. He worked as a carpenter and electrician before becoming a local real estate agent.

``The first house I bought was a two-family with a cottage,'' for which he paid $12,500, Milton said.

Deep River was settled in 1635 and was part of Old Saybrook until 1852. It kept the Saybrook name until 1947. The name Deep River is a reference to a steep-banked ford through Deep River Stream near the north end of Main Street.

Among the town's largest employers are Uarco Inc., which produces paper forms, and the Silgan Co., a plastics manufacturer. Historically, the main industry of the town was the tooling of ivory brought by ships up the Connecticut River. Combs and piano parts were produced by factories, including one in the village center, until the ivory business failed early in this century.

The last remaining factory was converted in the late 1980s into condominiums. There's been a rush lately on $50,000 split-level, two- bedroom, two-bathroom units, said Jack Conant, a real estate broker in Chester with The Heritage Co., a Century 21 realtor. Of the five condominium sales in the first quarter of this year, four were in The Piano Works, Conant said.

Milton said there are nearly 200 condominium units at four locations in town.

Rentals, however, are scarce, particularly during the summer, Milton said. One-bedroom apartments start at about $550 a month and two- bedroom units at about $850. Starting rents for houses are between $950 and $1,200 a month, Milton said.

In Deep River center, among the houses on the market is a seven- room home with an antique barn, a garden in the rear and a new kitchen. The asking price is $127,900.

A Federal-style home nearby lists for $134,900. The seven-room, three bedroom house was built in 1840. It has wraparound porches and a new roof.